I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automated bacteria colony counter and classifier.
II. Description of the Prior Art
In order to determine the bacteria concentration in medical as well as other applications, the bacteria sample is applied to a petri dish containing gelatin. The bacteria growth forming generally circular colonies which may or may not abut against each other.
In order to determine the bacteria concentration in the specimen, after the bacteria colonies become visible, the bacteria colonies are counted. Frequently, the bacteria colonies are counted manually by a lab worker.
A primary disadvantage of manually counting the bacteria colonies in a petri dish is that it is time consuming and involves relatively high labor costs. Additionally, the manual counting of colonies by a lab worker also results in inaccurate counts of the bacteria colonies.
There have, however, been previously known devices for automatically counting bacteria colonies in a petri dish. In one previously known device, a laser beam is used to scan the petri dish and generate a digital signal as a result of that scan.
A still further disadvantage of these previously known laser scanning devices is that such devices do not perform well in certain types of gelatines, particularly in darker and more opaque gelatines.
A still further disadvantage of these previously known laser and optical devices is that they have been inadequate for accurately differentiating between single bacteria colonies and two or more bacteria colonies which abut against each other.
A still further disadvantage of these previously known laser and optical devices is that they usually require manipulation of imaging settings to obtain a good image. These systems sometimes receive manipulation of settings for each individual plate being imaged. This is a disadvantage because it means there is excessive operator intervention.
Although it would be possible to overcome some, but not all, of the disadvantages of the previously known laser scanning devices by utilizing a high resolution area scan camera, e.g. 2048 pixels times 2048 pixels, such optical cameras are very expensive to obtain and maintain.